Help Me Solve the Problems in Sudan
First, go here.
I give a damn. But when I finished reading this column, I felt more dejected than I did before. With lots of time and a voracious appetite for NPR and The Miami Herald, I'm fairly well informed for your average college graduate. I already knew about the problems in the Darfur region. I understood the "geo-political context" (a Jody phrase) of why more is not being done to help alleviate suffering in the country that doesn't even recognize there's a problem. After reading Pitts, though, I was suddenly overwhelmed with faces in my mind -- faces of particular women, with blank, withdrawn looks on their faces -- belonging to people I've only ever seen in Knight Ridder's stock photo collection that's dusted off for page 23A.
And now I can't stop thinking about those women being raped. Or being forced to watch their children be raped. Or being unable to tear their eyes away from their brothers and husbands and cousins being beaten to death.
I give a damn.
So what can I do, Mr. Pitts? What good will come of my $500 in the hands of Doctors for Borders? Some good, I'm sure -- I'd hope -- but what of those women in my mind, what of their rapes? I'll gladly email, snail mail, and call my senator and representatives; I'll even get ten of my friends to do the same in their districts. But what of the women in my mind, what of their friends and daughters who will be raped tomorrow and the next day and the day after that? The geo-political landscape dictates that until the problems in Sudan infringe on US national security, it will be up to the opinion pages, Nicholas Kristof, NGOs and, well, who?, to keep reminding the world that real people like your grandma and your sister and your favorite check-out teller at your local Walgreens are being killed.
Tell me what to do because I give a damn.
You're the one with the bully pulpit, Mr. Pitts, so tell me what to do. Tell your large, syndicated readership one thing to do, one person with power to write to, so that collectively we may have a louder voice of outrage heard. Because I give a damn. And right now I feel like a worthless, helpless, incapacitated, guilty bystander who promised she learned from her obsessive reading about the Holocaust and visits to Holocaust museums and memorials and is now doing nothing but worry irrationally about irrational acts of violence with no ideas or plan for concrete action.
posted by Jen @ 9:27 PM
1 ..::thought(s)::..
1 ..::thought(s)::..
Jenny, I don't think you're alone in feeling helpless. I think that's the way we're programmed to think in society nowadays. I mean, if you think about the lessons we're taught by our parents, our teachers, and society as a whole, it makes sense. We're constantly made aware of all these atrocities that happen next door, in the next nation, or on another contintent. We're told to get off our asses, give a damn, and do something. Give some money to some philanthropic cause. Dedicate a week of your life to making some phone calls, or writing letters in protest. But at the end of all those little nudges to give a damn, it seems that silently, but strongly, society has tacked on one addendum..."While you should definitely give a damn, it's not worth giving your life." And I think that's where the problem comes in and what allows injustices to continue. People in today's society seem incapable to find something for which they'd give their life. I don't know what I'd do it for. But I know I'd be hardpressed to say that I'd give up the course of my life right now to go over to Sudan and really make a difference.
So in the end, does it really matter whether or not we care. Do the people getting murdered know we care. No. If we were willing to give our lives to prevent them from losing their lives, would it matter to them? Who knows, but I sure as hell bet it'd make a bit more of a difference.
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